The under-12 division two and under-14 division three Benalla Breakers girls pose together after claiming their respective division titles at the Wangaratta Basketball Inc. Junior Tournament at the weekend.
Benalla has continued its rich vein of basketball form at junior tournaments, with the Wangaratta Basketball Inc. Junior Tournament yielding another two championships for the Breakers at the weekend.
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Having secured three titles at the previous weekend’s Greater Shepparton Junior Tournament, the Breakers were made champions again in Wangaratta with the under-12 division two girls and under-14 division three girls going undefeated to hoist the trophy.
The under-12 girls were simply dominant, winning all four of their pool games across Saturday and Sunday by an average margin of 15.5 points, directly qualifying for the grand final as the top ranked side.
Taking on Tumut in the decider, the Breakers held an eight-point lead going into the final term, and despite a late Tumut fightback, held their nerve to claim a 24-23 win, and with it the title.
Stella McKenzie claimed the MVP award with seven points in the final, while Chessie Wilson added eight as the Breakers’ top scorer.
Under-12 division two girls MVP Stella McKenzie and under-14 division three girls MVP Khloe Anderson show off their silverware.
It was a similar story for the under-14 girls, who went through the round-robin portion of the tournament with four wins from four games, with the average winning margin a tick more than 17 points.
In a low-scoring decider, the Breakers took the lead at quarter-time and extended it at every break, eventually clinching a 15-8 victory, which was led by six points from MVP Khloe Anderson.
The under-16 boys division three Breakers enjoyed a brilliant tournament also, finishing runner-up to a fierce Cobram side.
Having qualified for the decider with a 2-2 record, sneaking through on head-to-head results despite an inferior percentage to Echuca, the Breakers were unable to topple the unbeaten Tigers, going down 38-64.
Oliver Parker was valiant, pouring in a team-high 14 points in the loss.
The Breakers finished as runners-up in the under-16 division three section.
In other divisions, the under-10 boys fought hard in each of their three games without picking up a win, while the under-12 division one boys had strong wins over Yarra-Mul Lakers (43-38) and Echuca (39-31), narrowly missing out on making the grand final.
The under-14 boys Blue division one side was in a similar position, earning wins over Myrtleford (44-23) and Wangaratta (61-34), but missing out on grand final qualification.
The under-14 boys Orange division three side and the under-16 girls division two side each picked up one win, beating Corryong (29-28) and Yarra-Mul Lakers (34-23), respectively, as did the under-18 boys division one side, accounting for Cobram 44-22.
